CHAPTER 2

My Childhood

I grew up in a hectic house with three brothers and one
sister. My dad was a religious man in his own quiet way. He
generally kept quiet about his religion. Once or twice I heard him
mention Edgar Cayce in passing, but I ignored most of this,
dismissing it as either "occult" or "unscientific." As a rule, he
never exposed his kids to occult ideas.

My mom was a devout Catholic, and she raised her kids as
"good" Catholics, that is, the kind who go to church every Sunday,
say their prayers, and pretty much forget about God and religion
during the week. At any rate, I grew up with a healthy sense of
right and wrong, and never used drugs. I was the only kid in my
high school who never tried marijuana. I still haven't tried
drugs; drugs are for people who are lazy and lack the will to
induce their own, natural altered states of consciousness.

Once I asked my mom if she remembered anything unusual about
my childhood. She told me that whenever I got really sick, I would
sleepwalk. To be precise, I would get up in the middle of the
night and dance around in circles chanting like an Indian shaman.
Of course, I wasn't conscious at the time.

When I got sick, I only remember a strange sensation that used
to terrify me: When I drifted off to sleep, I had a terrifying
"nightmare." I would "dream" that I held a tiny grain of salt in
the palm of my hand. Then my consciousness would shrink to a
terrifyingly small size until the grain of salt looked like a
skyscraper. Terrified of being crushed by the salt, I would wake
up screaming.

I didn't consider myself a psychic child. Nonetheless, I had
a few experiences worth noting.

One day, when I was perhaps 10 or 12 years old, I was very
depressed. I don't even remember why I was depressed, but my
depression was so severe that I actually prayed to die. Sometime
after I had gone to bed, I awoke to find myself whooshing up, out
of my body, escorted by what I thought was an angel. I thought I
had died, and I was amazed that I hadn't felt any pain during the
separation. I thought that death would be painful, but it wasn't.

Finally I came to a halt before a large, tremendously powerful
invisible being, whom I immediately thought was God. The being
told me it was time to go, and I understood immediately what that
meant: Death.

Then I got a yearning to go back. I was homesick. I felt
guilty about wishing to die. And I knew that my parents would be
very sad about my death. So I begged and pleaded to be brought
back to Earth. "Why?" I was asked. I thought for a moment,
searching for an answer. I said, "Everyone there thinks that death
is painful and sad. I have to go back to tell everyone that death
is painless, and joyful."

After thinking about it, "God" consented and I was escorted
back. I awoke amazed at the realism I had experienced. I forced
myself to believe it was a dream and nothing more.

Another experience happened when I was a little older, perhaps
14 or 15. I used to have playful wrestling matches with two other
boys.

One day we were talking about wrestling, and got on the
subject of the world-famous wrestling hold called "the sleeper hold."
The hold would knock an opponent out by cutting off blood
circulation to the brain. Anyway, we all wondered what it would be
like to be knocked out. FD was the strongest of the three and the
third boy was afraid, so I agreed to let FD knock me out with a
bear-hug.

We went outside and he gave me the strongest bear-hug I've
ever experienced. I couldn't breathe and soon became unconscious.
It was like waking from a dream; this world was a dream and I awoke
to a reality more real and vivid than this world is. I saw the
illusion of this existence on Earth dispelled! It faded away and
I didn't regret it. Soon I found myself in the "real" world in a
huge city that I already knew.

My memory seemed to return--Yes--I had gone to sleep and
dreamed of a little place called "Earth" and now I was awake.
"That was a silly dream" I thought, and I soon forgot all about
"Earth." I continued my life, just like before I fell asleep. I
lived in that fantastic city for years and years--centuries it
seemed. I lived there so long that I COMPLETELY forgot all about
Earth. For hundreds of years I had forgotten Earth. If someone
was to ask me about it, I couldn't remember, since it happened so
long ago.

Then one day I was walking to a store. Suddenly a confusing
loss of direction hit me and I felt myself falling. Suddenly I
opened my eyes only to see strange leaves, the sky and FD and the
other boy looking at me! Where was I now? How did I get here?
What happened? Then I remembered: Hundreds of years ago, I fell
asleep and found myself here. This place was called "Earth" and
was a part of a weird dream. I must have fallen asleep again.
Slowly my Earthly memory returned. I asked the boys how long I had
been unconscious. They said only a few minutes. They asked me
what happened, and I told them I didn't want to talk about it.

A third psychic experience is as follows: I was riding with
my father in his truck and we went under a railroad bridge viaduct.
It was near Columbia Park in Columbia Heights Minnesota, only a few
blocks from where I lived in Minneapolis. We drove under the
bridge, and a train was passing over the track. I got a very
uncomfortable feeling and "imagined" the train falling from the
track onto the truck and street, crushing us. I said, "I hate
this" to my dad. After we had gone through the viaduct I asked my
dad, "How often do they jump the track?" My dad (who worked as a
clerk for a railroad) said that it was nearly impossible for a
train to derail; it was especially rare at a bridge or viaduct.
Within a week, a train derailed at that very viaduct. I was about
14 at the time.

Some people may say that these psychic experiences would
suggest I was born with some natural abilities. However, I
disagree. A couple of unusual events during childhood does not
make you "psychic." My childhood was normal.

Once when I was young I overheard my dad talking to my brother
and he mentioned a thing called "astral projection." I asked my
brother what it was, but I was brushed aside with a simple, "That's
where people fly outside their bodies." It sounded interesting to
me, but too unscientific--like a fairy tale. I waited patiently
until the next time my mom took me to the library, then I tried to
find "Astral" in the card catalog. The library didn't have any
books on it at the time, so I forgot all about the subject.

EXERCISE 2

Prayer

Many people from all walks of life believe that we have
spiritual guides or guardians of some sort. Christians call them
Guardian Angels. Zoroastrians call them the Fervashi.
Spiritualists call them spirit guides. Whatever you call them,
they can hear our silent thoughts and prayers, and they can help us
in many ways. They can even help us have OBEs.

Since our guides are here to help us spiritually, this
exercise is to pray to your guides to help you have OBEs. I can't
tell you what to pray, but I can give you an example which I
sometimes use:

I pray to God, the All That Is, and to my guides, helpers and
any other benevolent beings, to please help me achieve my goal
of exploring consciously while out of my body. Help me leave
my body and become conscious and in return, I will do my best
to become more spiritual, and help you with your goals of
guidance.